AMR on the Global Political Agenda – AMR-Global Hosts 2nd Communities of Practice Session and 6th Annual Consortium Meeting
When antibiotics were discovered nearly a hundred years ago, it opened up a new world of lifesaving drugs which have changed the course of humanity forever. Diseases which used to kill are now curable with a few pills taken for a few days for humans and animals alike. However, antimicrobial resistance has emerged as a threat to the usability of antibiotics, primarily in higher-income settings but also, as we are now beginning to clearly see, in low-resource settings.
This is why the United Nations General Assembly recently passed a resolution during the 79th session in September 2024 which clarifies global goals and ambitions as we tackle the evidently global antimicrobial resistance problem.
"We are glad that AMR is being taken more seriously now and is on the global political agenda," shared Prof. Constance Schultsz, noting that major points such as microbial surveillance and diagnostics, previously underrepresented, is now a major tenet of the resolution.
Problem-Solving Public-Private Partnerships
18 October marked AMR-Global's 6th annual consortium meeting and second Community of Practice (CoP) session which focused on the United Nations aforementioned high-level declaration tackling Antimicrobial Resistance.
The morning session saw updates from the GLORIA Program and an exciting presentation from ShanX Medtech CEO Sophia Shanko. AIGHD Postdoctoral Researchers Kelly Herdzik and Gonçalo Piedade shared their work on the ROTA-biotic project while KNCV-TB’s Kristin Kremer shared their work on PAS4AMR.
“If this technology was available earlier, then my mother would be in better health”
Sophia Shanko, CEO of ShanX, opened her presentation with a callback to her motivation behind the company’s work. A capable engineer trained at TU Eindhoven, Sophia has developed many prototype medical devices in the past. However, she knows that her company’s first-line diagnostic tools for bacterial infections is critical and needed now more than ever in this battle against AMR.
AMR-Global and Health~Holland have been critical in bringing ShanX’s dream to life, providing them with opportunities and guidance for the future. The Communications Team at AMR-Global will be sitting down with Sophia to interview her in the future so keep an eye out for that.
An Afternoon of Practice
Hosts Anne le Clerq and Kristin Kremer
The afternoon session comprised of AMR-Global’s second Communities of Practice which invited stakeholders in Dutch antimicrobial resistance efforts to talk and ideate about the future of AMR in the country given the UN resolution on AMR passed during the 79th session. The session was co-hosted by Anna le Clerq and Kristin Kremer from the International Federation of Medical Students Association and KNCV-TB respectively.
In the audience were members of various government institutions including the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Foreign Affairs who spoke about their experiences and contributions to the resolution and the debates prior to the session. “Most of the negotiations happen months before the actual session,” shared Rosalien Stroot from the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport as she discussed the roadmap towards the 79th UNGA High level meeting on AMR.
Rosalien Stroot from the Ministry of Health, Welfare, and Sport
The Netherlands has been a leader in AMR, hosting two international ministerial-level conferences aimed at the issue during the early- to mid- 2010s. This was a result of our own experiences with AMR from the 1990s-2010s.
Speaking from the non-governmental perspective was Martijn van Gerven from the Access to Medicine Foundation who emphasised the importance of scaling access to crucial antibiotics and inducing action from pharmaceutical companies to actively participate in combatting AMR. Prof. Constance Schultsz, a clinical microbiologist at Amsterdam UMC and the Director for Science at AIGHD, spoke as a member of the scientific community. Her perspective focused on supporting scientific research especially in diagnostics as a core component of combatting AMR. Finally, Remko van Leeuwen from SurvivX shared his perspective from the private sector, emphasising that supporting Small and Medium enterprises continue to be critical to innovate technologies in the AMR space.
Building Advocacy Through Consultation
A major component of our communities of practice session was the breakout groups which tackled three major themes: (1) Innovations in AMR, (2) Stewardship and Awareness, and (3) Access to Antimicrobials. These sessions resulted in lively discussions, new allies, and ultimately, our document of recommendations to the Dutch government.
You can find the recommendations document here: From New York to Jeddah: AMR-Global CoP2 co-organised roundtable discussion on the UN high-level declaration on AMR
We also did a LinkedIn campaign to share our advocacies during World Antimicrobial Awareness Week. You can find the advocacy documents here.
Practice Begins Now
Sarah Spronk from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs closed out our afternoon of pratice, sharing her own experiences and perspectives on how we could make our health systems more resilient with the looming threat of AMR.
The session concluded with two key sentiments: that these discussions are merely the beginning of a larger collective movement to address AMR in an equitable manner and that antimicrobial resistance is a global problem which will require global outreach and collaboration.
We’d like to extend our gratitude to all our guests who brought their perspectives and ideas, who asked critical questions, and who continue to advocate for AMR.